Philip Graham: Ear Trumpet Labs

Building Great Microphones from the Stuff in your Basement

Having stumbled into the rabbit hole of microphone building, I will attempt to drag in after me as many listeners as I can. There will be some tech talk about the many ways of transducing sound waves to electrical signals; the ins and outs of a weird DIY niche community; making cool useful things from metal with no machining skills at all; the path from hobby to obsession to business; and the pleasures of the toolmaker in seeing their tools well used.

Philip Graham is the Proprietor/Bricoleur of Ear Trumpet Labs, a Portland company hand-building distinctive microphones. He left his software job to make mics full time three years ago, and has rarely left his basement since, except to see the musicians he's inspired by. When he's lucky they're using his mics.